Phoenix

Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa © 2012 Marieke de Koker

I ripped out every part of myself

Spilled my guts on the floor

My beating heart staring at me

Stomach and uterus

Bones and blood

Do you think gore is ugly?

I am not afraid of my body

The parts of my marvelous machine

The miracle of complexity 

In my dissociation 

I begin my maintenance

My surgery

I rise like an eerie clay figure

Snapping its bones into place

And into motion

I rise like a phoenix from the ashes

Reborn

I look at my life with new eyes

Nothing looks the same

Nothing feels the same

Nothing will ever be the same again

My scars are my armor

I have grown, I have changed

I am new

© 2024 Marieke de Koker